SHORT SHRIFT TO IL­LE­GAL SAND MIN­ERS IN ARACHCHIKATTUWA

Po­lice and the STF that car­ried out a raid on an il­le­gal sand min­ing site in the Katopotha tank in Arachchikattuwa ar­rested four sus­pects and seized two back­hoes. The sus­pects had been car­ry­ing on the racket on forged sand min­ing per­mits and forged sand trans­port per­mits.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions re­vealed that the con­trac­tors who un­der­took the restora­tion of the tank had re­sorted to il­le­gal sand min­ing af­ter the restora­tion project ended. Po­lice said the sus­pects had caused ex­ten­sive dam­age to the tank with the ca­pac­ity of 1200 acres that ir­ri­gated more than 1000 hectares of paddy.

Res­i­dents of the area said the con­trac­tors started sand min­ing af­ter the restora­tion project was com­pleted un­der the pre­text that they had re­ceived a fresh con­tract to de­velop the tank fur­ther. Po­lice said a prom­i­nent politi­cian and an of­fice bearer of the Agrar­ian So­ci­ety were in­volved in the racket.